ATTENTION ALL SHOPPERS
You may not be aware of it, but the air around you is filled with subtle advertisements..
You have just disembarked from a long and exhausting flight, and are still waiting for your onward
connection, so the smell of freshly cut grass and the tangy scent of the sea are invigorating. But you’re not reclining in
some tropical beach, sipping a strawberry daiquiri. In fact, you haven’t even left the airport. You are in the British
Airways business class lounge at Heathrow, and the fragrances you’re savouring have been specially created to enhance
your comfort. “It’s all about making people feel refreshed and uplifted,” says Jamie Bowden, BA’s media relations
manager, of the designers aromas wafting around the room. And, of course, it’s all about encouraging you to book your
next flight with Ba, too.
While the customised olfactory environment in the BA lounge is not an advertisement in the traditional sense,
it is one of the new ways that advertising agencies and corporations are trying to influence purchasing decisions. The
average person is bombarded by thousands of ads each day: on walls, on floors, above urinals, on baggage carousels
and the backs of ticket stubs, at cinemas and ATM machines.
Given this surfeit of marketing messages, consumers have become adept at editing out those ads that don't
immediately grab their interest. For companies eager to establish a brand or promote a product, the customer's attention
is becoming an increasingly scarce, and therefore increasingly valuable, commodity. Marketeers are responding by
employing science and technology as the new hidden persuaders, invisible levers that can be used to track spending
habits, target advertisements and build customer relationships. The result: advances in fields as diverse as biology and
computing are enabling advertisers to get up our noses, inside our beads and under our skins.
There are about 400,000 odours in the world, each one of which can influence mood and behaviour. It has
been shown, for example, that extracts from male sweat can affect the regularity of a woman's menstrual cycle. But
aromas can also help induce consumers to spend money, and many companies are experimenting with the new science
of smell to create optimal shopping environments. "When the air quality is pleasant, so is the shopping experience,'
says Diotima von Kempski, whose Düsseldorf-based company, D.V.K., designs scents and ventilation systems for
retail clients in Europe, Asia and the U.S. 'If people feel good, they buy more."
Brewed from roots, herbs, flowers and fruit, von Kempski's fragrances entice customers to linger, giving the
retailer a larger window of opportunity in which to make a sale. "It has to be natural, not artificial,' Von Kempski
explains. 'The strongest effect comes when the fragrance is barely discernible." Bernd Bleicher, manager of Walz
Mödehaus, a posh clothing chain based in Ulm, is convinced that smell sells. "There's a prickly freshness in the store
that puts customers in the mood to browse," Bleicher says. " [The scents] create conditions conducive to serious
shopping."
Retailers in the U.K. have got wind of the link between smelling and selling too. B.O.C. Gases in Guildford,
Surrey, has carried out a number of commercial scent experiments for clients. It has tried out the bracing aroma of
newly washed linen for Thomas Pink, the famous shirtmakers in London's Jermyn Street, and tested the fragrance of
fresh leather in the showrooms at a car dealership. 'We're trying to create a particular environment rather than influence
people directly," says Duncan Roberts, B.O.G.'s sales and marketing manager. Interest in made-to-order odours is
growing, Robert says, and companies have even approached him regarding the creation of "corporate smells' to go
along with their corporate logos.
Paul Fitzgerald thinks the whole thing stinks. “Why is all this necessary?" asks Fitzgerald, a coordinator with
the Manchester-based anti-consumerism pressure group Enough. "One-fifth of the world’s population already
consumes over 80% of the natural resources. This technology is just going to add to the problems."
Even George Dodd, research and development director at London-based Kiotech International, a
biotechnology firm specialising in smells, has his doubts. Six years ago during the Christmas shopping countdown, be
carried out an experiment in which a blend of pheromones -smells that can induce specific behaviours- were circulated
through the basement of one of London's largest department stores. Sales in that department were monitored, and Dodd
and his colleagues observed that shoppers lingered longer -and consequently spent more money. “Having done it," he
says, "I'm not convinced about the ethics. You are being assaulted by a chemical and not getting a choice."
Dodd's doubts haven't stopped Kiotech from test-marketing Excite in northern England. Aimed at 18 to 25year-olds, Excite is a "pheromone sachet" that is daubed on the body like a perfume. Its function: to arouse the interest
of potential sexual partners. The product has generated a lot of excitement on the club scene: available through vending
machines, its been outselling condoms four to one.
From: Time Magazine, August 2, 1999